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Strengthen Faith, Build Hope, Share Love in Christ Our Savior
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Christ Our Savior
Lutheran Church
ANDY KELTNER, PASTOR
5 South 8th Street
Louisburg, KS 66053
(913)837-4502
[email protected]
Worship 8 a.m. 10:30 a.m. & 7 p.m.
Sunday School 9:15a.m.-10:15a.m.
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Pastor Andy Writes...
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Pastor Andy Keltner
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Love
God loves us. I am not great at grammar. Still, when I look at this sentence I am pretty sure love is the verb. A verb is an action word. This is what I was taught in grade school. God loves us. This is something he does daily.
This is from Luther's explanation of the first article of the Apostles Creed
. " I believe that God has made me and all creatures; that He has given me my body and soul, eyes, ears, and all my members, my reason and all my senses, and still takes care of them. He also gives me clothing and shoes, food and drink, house and home, wife and children, land, animals, and all I have. He richly and daily provides me with all that I need to support this body and life. He defends me against all danger and guards and protects me from all evil". This is one of the ways God love us. He daily provides us with all we need to support this body and life. God loves us.
Another way God loves us is by sending his Son. Paul says, when we were enemies of God, Christ dies for us. John says God so loved the World that he sent his only Son. God loves us so much he came to us. He dies for us. He brings us to himself. He does everything necessary for our salvation. This is love as a verb. Jesus lifts us up. He comes to serve and not to be served. Jesus left everything he had in heaven to rescue us. His entire earthly life was lived for us. Love is a verb.
We are loved. This truth impacts every aspect of our life. There is nothing we will ever do to make God love us less. There is nothing we can ever do to make God love us more. He has loved us absolutely. Jesus loves us and calls us to love one another.
John 13:34: "
A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another". Jesus uses love as a verb. It is something God calls us to do. We think of love as a feeling. It is an emotion. We want the experience of being in love. We want to be loved. Jesus tells us he loves us. This is not a feeling or an emotion it is something that he does for us. Then Jesus tells us to love one another. This means we do something.
1 Corinthians chapter 13 describes love. It bears all things, hopes all things, endures all things etc. These are all thing that are done. It is an attitude we bring to every relationship. It is also something we work at. Love one another is a commandment. It is something we strive to achieve following the example of Christ. God loves us so we can love others.
When we look at God's love we respond by serving, encouraging, caring and sharing every gift God has given us. The truth is if you want to be loved you need to love. The amazing thing about our God is he loves us. He loves us unconditionally. He loves us as we are and where we are. His love changes us. God's love should also move us to love one another. Andy Stanley in his study "Life Changing Love" states that the secret to a strong marriage is to make love a verb. The secret to being the people God has called us to be is to make love a verb. We love by doing something for someone else. God loves us. Love one another.
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Get Ready to Help!
Lenten Dinners
We will begin having dinner before the
Wednesday
services during Lent. The first meal will be Ash
Wednesday
-
March 1st
. If your group would like to sponsor a dinner, please contact Christine Fauss (913-645-4003 or aunttine01@gmail.com)
.
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Your Amazon Purchase can help Christ Our Savior
Shop Amazon Smile for your Valentine's Day gifts! Every purchase you make can increase donations for Christ Our Savior Lutheran Church. Amazon has a large variety of gifts that are perfect for Valentine's Day including electronics, jewelry, clothing, and more.
Use the "Amazon Smile - Christ Our Savior" link above and it will connect you.
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Lutheran Valley Retreat (LVR) - Summer Camp!!
Summer is fast approaching and we are just two weeks away from registration opening for the Kansas District Summer Camps at LVR in Colorado (July 16 - 21). This camp is for high school students who will graduate from high school in 2017 to 2021.
This includes the current 8th grade class.
Registration opens March 1, 2017 at 8:00 a.m. These spots are reserved on a first-come, first-served basis, so don't delay in letting your youth leader know you want to come!
A deposit of $100 per youth is required to hold a registration spot, which will be applied to the total cost - $50 is non-refundable. ($425 - includes transportation, camp fees, meals at camp, and spiritual life programming. Travel day's meals are not included.)
If a deposit is NOT made, youth will be removed from the online registration system. The $100 deposit is due on March 19th
After May 17th, NO MONEY is refunded unless a substitution can be made from the waiting list. If a substitution can be made then a refund is made minus $50 which is still non-refundable. Substitutions and refunds must be handled by Pam Amey.
ALL
forms, including the Physical, are due by March 31, 2017 to hold your registration spot. These forms must be turned into Gerry & Michelle by March 19th.
Youth must
provide a physician signed physical evaluation form from a physical evaluation done within the prior 16 months to camp dates.
School/Sports physicals are acceptable. All the forms can be downloaded at the District Summer Camp Website:
http://kseducationalservices.yolasite.com/lvr.php
or see Gerry & Michelle for forms.
If you have any questions please talk to Gerry and Michelle Eickhoff, Youth Group Leaders, or call Brian Amey, the Kansas Summer Camp Director, or Pam Amey, the Registration and Forms Coordinator (
316-305-5049
[email protected]).
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Blessings in a Backpack - YOUth Service Project
The YOUth Service Project this month is helping Blessings in a Backpack.
We will be collecting the items listed below all throughout February to show our love for others!
Look for the dropbox in the narthex.
Please help our youth collect the following items:
Instant oatmeal packets, single serve peanut butter, canned tuna and chicken (no large cans!), Vienna sausage, Ramen noodles, single serve cereal packets, and single serve snack items....fruit chews, Cheezits, Goldfish, etc.
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YOUth Group - Friends & Family Event
| Who: |
COS "YOU"th in grades 6-12 & friends/family
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| Date: |
Sunday, Feb.5 - sign - up in the Narthex and in the high school Youth Group Room as we need to know how many are going! Maybe get a group rate????
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| Time: |
11:45 a.m. - 1:15 p.m. (lunch in the basement - bring your favorite soup to share); Skate from 2 p.m. - 4 p.m. @ Skate City (10440 Mastin)
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| Where: |
COS - to carpool (if needed) &/or Skate City
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| Cost: |
2 hour session = $5.25; traditional skate rental $2; inline/speed $4
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| What to bring: |
Yourself, Friends, & your parents!
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| What: |
We will enjoy our lunch in the basement together and discuss out next fundraiser for March - Bake Sale? Also set dates for our March Family & Friends Event - Bowling (Mission Bowl: adults $4.25/ Youth 3.25 - shoes $3.50)
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YOUth Group to deliver Valentine's Day Cards
Youth Group to Deliver Valentine's Day Cards
to the Nursing Home
Sunday, February 12 - Come along!
This year the youth group and the Sunday school kids will be making homemade Valentine's Cards and treat bags for the residents at the local nursing homes. We will be delivering them to the residents during Sunday school hour (9:15-10:15) on Sunday, February 12. Please help our YOUth group collect as many as possible and help make someone's day! Let's help them feel special! Look in the Narthex for the Valentine Box to place your finished creations and the deadline for collecting the valentines is Sunday, February 12 by the end of 1st service. Let us know also if you'd like to come along and deliver them to the residents.
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Religious Liberty
Religious Liberty IS under threat in the U.S. There is persecution of Christians in the U.S., on a very broad spectrum - in schools, on the job, in the military, with Christian-owned businesses, in the public square, with public funding, and even
in our homes & churches. The cost - being afraid to live out our faith, being threatened, being fined, losing jobs, losing businesses, and needing to hire attorneys to fight! Recently, I saw that the two major Christian religious-liberty nonprofits I support both have cases VERY close to home!!
Alliance Defending Freedom/ADF will argue its case in the U.S. Supreme Court in April on behalf of an LC-MS church in Columbia, MO, denied a public grant only because it is a church. Last week, I was able to tour ADF's offices in DC & see Jordan Lorence, ADF's brilliant Supreme-Court attorney who will argue the case. (The last time, he won the Hobby Lobby/Conestoga Wood case, protecting Christian-owned businesses from having to pay for abortifacients in ObamaCare.) ADF's newsletter also said LC-MS is now partnering with ADF, the first time I have ever seen ADF single out any denomination.
Two weeks ago, I was SHOCKED to see that First Liberty Institute has a Federal case involving the City of LOUISBURG, KS!! In 2015, two police officers here prevented a disabled Catholic woman they had badly frightened by entering her home (her radio was too loud) from praying -- in her own apartment. When she referred to her copy of the Constitution, one officer told her it was "just a piece of paper" and didn't matter. [They charged her with disorderly conduct & resisting arrest!] The City's response was that the lady still had the right to choose a religion. [I.e., just not practice it!] The City actually won its case in the U.S. District Court (in KCK), but First Liberty is now appealing the case to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10
th Circuit (in Denver). Taxpayers are still paying for its law firm. Unbelievable!!! [I have the lady's name - she's in the phone book!! - & legal details but am reluctant to go public, mainly to protect her privacy.]
Bob Kirkpatrick
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